Large rhyolitic volcanoes pose a hazard, yet the processes and signals foretelling an eruption are obscure. Satellite geodesy has revealed surface inflation signaling unrest within magma reservoirs underlying a few rhyolitic volcanoes. Although seismic, electrical, and potential field methods may illuminate the current configuration and state of these reservoirs, they cannot fully address the processes by which they grow and evolve on geologic time scales. We combine measurement of a deformed paleoshore surface, isotopic dating of volcanism and surface exposure, and modeling to determine the rate of growth of a rhyolite-producing magma reservoir. The numerical approach builds on a magma intrusion model developed to explain the current, decade-long, surface inflation at >20 cm/year. Assuming that the observed 62-m uplift reflects several non-eruptive intrusions of magma, each similar to the unrest over the past decade, we find that similar to 13 km(3) of magma recharged the reservoir at a depth of similar to 7 km during the Holocene, accompanied by the eruption of similar to 9 km(3) of rhyolite. The long-term rate of magma input is consistent with reservoir freezing and pluton formation. Yet, the unique set of observations considered here implies that large reservoirs can be incubated and grow at shallow depth via episodic high-flux magma injections. These replenishment episodes likely drive rapid inflation, destabilize cooling systems, propel rhyolitic eruptions, and thus should be carefully monitored.

Extensive vertical deformation (>4.5 m) observed at Sierra Negra volcano Galapagos, Ecuador, between 1992 and the 2005 eruption led scientists to hypothesize that repeated faulting events relieved magma chamber overpressure and prevented eruption. To better understand the catalyst of the 2005 eruption, thermomechanical models are used to track the stress state and stability of the magma storage system during the 1992-2005 inflation events. Numerical experiments indicate that the host rock surrounding the Sierra Negra reservoir remained in compression with minimal changes in overpressure (similar to 10 MPa) leading up to the 2005 eruption. The lack of tensile failure and minimal overpressure accumulation likely inhibited dike initiation and accommodated the significant inflation without the need for pressure relief through shallow trapdoor faulting events. The models indicate that static stress transfer due to the M-w 5.4 earthquake 3 hr prior to the eruption most likely triggered tensile failure and catalyzed the 2005 eruption.

The Laguna del Maule volcanic field is a large rhyolitic magmatic system in the Chilean Andes, which has exhibited frequent eruptions during the past 20 ka. Rapid surface uplift (>20 cm/year) has been observed since 2007 accompanied by localized earthquake swarms and microgravity changes, indicating the inflating magma reservoir may interact with a preexisting weak zone (i.e., Troncoso fault). In this investigation, we model the magma reservoir by data assimilation with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data. The reservoir geometry is comparable to the magma body inferred by seismic tomography, magnetotelluric, and gravity studies. The models also suggest that a weak zone, which has little effect on surface displacement, is important as a fluid transport channel to promote earthquakes and microgravity changes. In particular, concentrated dilatancy within the weak zone facilitates the microfracture formation during reservoir inflation. High-pressure fluid can inject into the weak zone from the magma reservoir to trigger earthquakes and further migrate upward to create positive gravity changes by occupying unsaturated storages. The pore pressure will then decrease, halting the seismicity swarm until the next cycle. This "hydrofracturing" process may release some accumulated stress along the magma reservoir delaying an eventual eruption in turn. Besides, the resultant models are propagated forward in time to evaluate potential stress trajectories for future unrest.

In volcano gravimetry, when analyzing residual spatiotemporal (time-lapse) gravity changes, the accurate deformation-induced topographic effect (DITE) should be used to account for the gravitational effect of surface deformation. Numerical realization of DITE requires the deformation field available in grid form. We compute the accurate DITE correction for gravity changes observed at the Laguna del Maule volcanic field in Chile over three nearly annual periods spanning 2013?2016 and compare it numerically with the previously used free-air effect (FAE) correction. We assess the impact of replacing the FAE by DITE on the model source parameters of analytic inversion solutions and apply a new inversion approach based on model exploration and growing source bodies. The new inversion results based on the DITE correction shift the position of the mass intrusion upwards by a few hundred meters and lower the total mass of the migrated fluids to roughly a half, compared to the inversion results based on the local-FAE correction. Our new Growth inversion results indicate that vertical dip slip faults beneath the lake, as well as the Troncoso fault play active roles in hosting migrating liquid. We also show that for the study period, the DITE at Laguna del Maule can be accurately evaluated by the planar Bouguer approximation, which only requires the availability of elevation changes at gravity network benchmarks. We hypothesize that this finding may be generalized to all volcanic areas with flatter or less rugged terrain and may modify interpretations based on the commonly used FAE corrections. ? 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improved understanding of the impact of crystal mush rheology on the response of magma chambers to magmatic events is critical for better understanding crustal igneous systems with abundant crystals. In this study, we extend an earlier model by Liao et al. (2018); which considers the mechanical response of a magma chamber with poroelastic crystal mush, by including poroviscoelastic rheology of crystal mush. We find that the coexistence of the two mechanisms of poroelastic diffusion and viscoelastic relaxation causes the magma chamber to react to a magma injection event with more complex time-dependent behaviors. Specifically, we find that the system's short-term evolution is dominated by the poroelastic diffusion process, while its long-term evolution is dominated by the viscoelastic relaxation process. We identify two post-injection timescales that represent these two stages and examine their relation to the material properties of the system. We find that better constraints on the poroelastic diffusion time are more important for the potential interpretation of surface deformation using the model.

The Laguna del Maule volcanic field in Chile has been exhibiting unrest since 2005. New GPS and InSAR data reveal a second episode of accelerated deformation beginning in late 2016 and continuing through May 2020, with an uplift rate > 290 mm/year between 2019 and 2020. To explain the spatial and temporal pattern of deformation, we apply a dynamic model of viscous magma flowing through a conduit into a fluid-filled reservoir surrounded by a heterogeneous, viscoelastic crust. A Monte Carlo procedure optimizes the ellipsoid reservoir geometry and the inlet pressure history. The two episodes of accelerating uplift are each modeled with a pressure increase rate of similar to 9 MPa/year. Since 2016, 0.10 km(3) of magma was injected into the system for a total of 0.37 km(3) since 2005.

Classical mechanisms of volcanic eruptions mostly involve pressure buildup and magma ascent towards the surface'. Such processes produce geophysical and geochemical signals that may be detected and interpreted as eruption precursors(1-3) . On 22 May 2021, Mount Nyiragongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), an open-vent volcano with a persistent lava lake perched within its summit crater, shook up this interpretation by producing an approximately six-hour-long flank eruption without apparent precursors, followed-rather than preceded-by lateral magma motion into the crust. Here we show that this reversed sequence was most likely initiated by a rupture of the edifice, producing deadly lava flows and triggering a voluminous 25-km-long dyke intrusion. The dyke propagated southwards at very shallow depth (less than 500 m) underneath the cities of Goma (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Gisenyi (Rwanda), as well as Lake Kivu. Thisvolcanic crisis raises new questions about the mechanisms controlling such eruptions and the possibility of facing substantially more hazardous events, such as effusions within densely urbanized areas, phreato-magmatism or a limnic eruption from the gas-rich Lake Kivu. It also more generally highlights the challenges faced with open-vent volcanoes for monitoring, early detection and risk management when a significant volume of magma is stored close to the surface.

The degree to which elevated CO2 concentrations (e[CO2]) increase the amount of carbon (C) assimilated by vegetation plays a key role in climate change. However, due to the short-term nature of CO2 enrichment experiments and the lack of reconciliation between different ecological scales, the effect of e[CO2] on plant biomass stocks remains a major uncertainty in future climate projections. Here, we review the effect of e[CO2] on plant biomass across multiple levels of ecological organization, scaling from physiological responses to changes in population-, community-, ecosystem-, and global-scale dynamics. We find that evidence for a sustained biomass response to e[CO2] varies across ecological scales, leading to diverging conclusions about the responses of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. While the distinct focus of every scale reveals new mechanisms driving biomass accumulation under e[CO2], none of them provides a full picture of all relevant processes. For example, while physiological evidence suggests a possible long-term basis for increased biomass accumulation under e[CO2] through sustained photosynthetic stimulation, population-scale evidence indicates that a possible e[CO2]-induced increase in mortality rates might potentially outweigh the effect of increases in plant growth rates on biomass levels. Evidence at the global scale may indicate that e[CO2] has contributed to increased biomass cover over recent decades, but due to the difficulty to disentangle the effect of e[CO2] from a variety of climatic and land-use-related drivers of plant biomass stocks, it remains unclear whether nutrient limitations or other ecological mechanisms operating at finer scales will dampen the e[CO2] effect over time. By exploring these discrepancies, we identify key research gaps in our understanding of the effect of e[CO2] on plant biomass and highlight the need to integrate knowledge across scales of ecological organization so that large-scale modeling can represent the finer-scale mechanisms needed to constrain our understanding of future terrestrial C storage.

The origin of major volatiles nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur in planets is critical for understanding planetary accretion, differentiation, and habitability. However, the detailed process for the origin of Earth's major volatiles remains unresolved. Nitrogen shows large isotopic fractionations among geochemical and cosmochemical reservoirs, which could be used to place tight constraints on Earth's volatile accretion process. Here we experimentally determine N-partitioning and -isotopic fractionation between planetary cores and silicate mantles. We show that the core/mantle N-isotopic fractionation factors, ranging from -4 parts per thousand to +10 parts per thousand, are strongly controlled by oxygen fugacity, and the core/mantle N-partitioning is a multi-function of oxygen fugacity, temperature, pressure, and compositions of the core and mantle. After applying N-partitioning and -isotopic fractionation in a planetary accretion and core-mantle differentiation model, we find that the N-budget and -isotopic composition of Earth's crust plus atmosphere, silicate mantle, and the mantle source of oceanic island basalts are best explained by Earth's early accretion of enstatite chondrite-like impactors, followed by accretion of increasingly oxidized impactors and minimal CI chondrite-like materials before and during the Moon-forming giant impact. Such a heterogeneous accretion process can also explain the carbon-hydrogen-sulfur budget in the bulk silicate Earth. The Earth may thus have acquired its major volatile inventory heterogeneously during the main accretion phase.

The FourStar infrared camera is a 1.0-2.5 mu m (JHK(s)) near infrared camera for the Magellan Baade 6.5m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (Chile). It is being built by Carnegie Observatories and the Instrument Development Group and is scheduled for completion in 2009. The instrument uses four Teledyne HAWAII-2RG arrays that produce a 10.9'x 10.9' field of view. The outstanding seeing at the Las Campanas site coupled with FourStar's high sensitivity and large field of view will enable many new survey and targeted science programs.